海角大神

The coronavirus pandemic and the social distancing it requires is affecting everyone differently. Some people have found themselves with far more time on their hands than they know what to do with. Others 鈥� including health care professionals, those caring for sick family members, and听parents of young children听鈥� are overwhelmed by the day鈥檚 demands.听

But if there鈥檚 one universal element to our experience, it鈥檚 that it is distorting our sense of the passage of time. February feels as though it happened a decade ago. Days blur together, and the hours alternatively fly by and slow to a crawl, depending on how anxious or bored we鈥檙e feeling and how many new memories we are generating.

What鈥檚 going on? Niels van de Ven, a psychologist at Tilburg University in the Netherlands, explains that these shifts in temporal perception happen when we lose the normal reference points that anchor our days and weeks.听Listen to the full audio story above.听

Note: This audio story was designed to be heard. We strongly encourage you to experience it with your ears, but we understand that is not an option for everybody. For those who are unable to listen, we have provided a transcript of the story.听(If you鈥檙e reading this off our website and don鈥檛 see an audio player, click听here听to access the audio player.)

Audio Transcript:

[Clock ticking]

Eoin O鈥機arroll: If there ever were a defining power ballad for the coronavirus era, this parody by The Holderness Family would be a good contender.

[Excerpt from 鈥淚 Want to Know What Day It Is鈥� song parody by The Holderness Family]听

Rebecca Asoulin: Because this crisis has made us lose our normal sense of time. Most of us are experiencing time distortions, even though people鈥檚 experiences are wildly different right now. I鈥檓 Rebecca Asoulin, engagement editor for 海角大神.

Eoin: And I鈥檓 Eoin O鈥機arroll, a science reporter for the Monitor.

[Music]

To get at what鈥檚 going on and to offer some tips on how to regain some sense of order, we called up Niels van de Ven, a psychologist at Tilburg University in the Netherlands. He studies how people perceive the world, including how they experience the passage of time.听

Rebecca:听Niels lives in the part of the Netherlands that was hit by the coronavirus first and has been in lockdown for around a month. And he鈥檚 noticed changes in his own perception of time.听

[Sort of a 鈥渮hoop鈥� sound]听

Eoin: This is a really important point: Why might you be losing track of the day? It鈥檚 because you鈥檝e lost your normal reference points. For instance, children are normally at school on weekdays. Now, my kids are at home all day watching 鈥淎LF鈥� reruns on Amazon.

[Four seconds of the 鈥淎LF鈥� theme song, composed by Alf Clausen (no relation)]听

Rebecca: I鈥檝e heard people say that it feels like they鈥檝e gone through like an entire month in the past week or the past day. What do you think鈥檚 going on there?听

[Music]

Eoin: This is another really important point:听 Our perception of time is closely linked to attention. When you鈥檙e paying more attention 鈥搇ike Niels is during his busy days 鈥� you are generating more memories. That makes your day feel longer in retrospect.听听

[Music]

Eoin:听So when you鈥檙e not doing much, each day feels really long in the moment, but in retrospect, the day goes by quickly. So what is one way people with a lot of time on their hands can use it wisely?听

[Music]

Eoin: Niels emphasized that a lot of people are in situations that make it incredibly difficult to have the time to do this 鈥� people on the front lines, who鈥檝e lost their jobs, who are ill or taking care of loved ones, or who have lost loved ones. The thing is, there are many different experiences of the current situation. And it鈥檚 important to acknowledge that so we can do a better job of supporting one another.听

[Music]听

Eoin: So what can you do with all this information?

Rebecca: For those under stress right now, it鈥檚 most likely hard to compartmentalize your time. But trying to in any small way you can, could help give you some sense of order.听

Eoin: For others the days might feel really boring. You鈥檙e stuck in the same place with the same people, just like ALF.听

Rebecca: For those folks: Try learning something new. Or try journaling. Reflecting on your day, even if everything that happened felt mundane in the moment helps you build reference points which anchor you in time.听听

Eoin: And for everyone: one important thing about time perception is that we remember new experiences as having lasted longer than familiar ones. And the coronavirus pandemic is a weird mix of the familiar and the new.听

Rebecca: As Niels explained, the familiar 鈥� like grocery shopping 鈥� has become novel. And when something is new, the experience requires more of our attention, which makes us remember it as lasting longer. But for those of us at home surrounded by the familiar, the lack of new stimuli throughout our day can actually make time feel like it鈥檚 zipping by.听

Eoin: This global lockdown has a way of blending the universal with the particular. Social distancing has forced us to become atomized in ways that we鈥檝e never been before. But at the same time, it has created a unifying experience.听

Decades from now, when anyone brings up the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, no matter who we are or where we were, we鈥檒l each have a story to tell, one that will be in many ways unique, but probably also familiar.听

Rebecca: At least in one way...

[鈥淚 Want to Know What Day It Is鈥�]

This audio story was reported by me, Rebecca Asoulin, and Eoin O鈥機arroll. I produced this story. Editing by Samantha Laine Perfas and Noelle Swan. Sound design and engineering by Noel Flatt and Morgan Anderson. Special thanks to Jessica Mendoza and Ann Hermes. The Foreigner parody song, 鈥淚 Want to Know What Day It Is鈥� is by The Holderness Family. You can find the complete music video on YouTube.听

Do you want to hear more from us on the concept of time? We鈥檙e working on a podcast right now called 鈥淚t鈥檚 About Time.鈥� Email us at podcast@csmonitor.com with the subject line 鈥淭ime鈥� if you want to get an update when we launch the podcast.听

This story was produced by 海角大神, copyright 2020.

Editor鈥檚 note: As a public service,听all our coronavirus coverage听is free. No paywall.